patafemma (u/patafemma)

patafemma commented on What OS should I drive? codefaster.substack.com/p... · Posted by u/code-faster

benrutter · a year ago

Yes! I thought exactly the same when I read it. I use windows often because I have to (things like coorporate policy) but never because I want to.

The worlds a great and diverse place though- there must be people who like genuinely Windows over Mac or Linux. Any chance one of them is reading this and wants to share what they love about Windows?

patafemma · a year ago

I don't specifically like Windows. But for me, it's the best option of the three. Every Linux distro I've ever tried have had some user experience issues or bugs with the user interface. Also, there's a lot of commercial software like PowerPoint and Excel that are not available for Linux.

I don't like Mac keyboard layout, keyboard shortcuts or window management. I like the hardware but I cannot get over this stuff.

Windows gives me WSL2 so I can basically use Linux with Windows user interface. I've heard a lot of complaints about Windows user experience but personally I like it way more than Mac. It has it's issues but I can live with those. So Windows it is.

patafemma commented on What OS should I drive? codefaster.substack.com/p... · Posted by u/code-faster

patafemma · a year ago

I used to work with a Linux laptop daily. Mostly Linux Mint, but tried some other distros as well. I got frustrated with UX issues, problems connecting to external monitors and also sometimes I need to use PowerPoint and Excel.

Now I'm happily running Windows 11 with WSL2.

patafemma commented on Show HN: SnazzyPDF – Convert Any JSON Data to Beautifully Formatted PDFs snazzypdf.com/... · Posted by u/patafemma

xupybd · a year ago

I think this is great but you might need to think about your point of difference. I suspect you have a product here but it might need some refining.

I asked Claude to create me something to do this. It worked first go.

import json from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Table, TableStyle, Paragraph from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet from reportlab.lib import colors

def create_pdf_from_json(json_file, pdf_file): # Read JSON data with open(json_file, 'r') as file: data = json.load(file)

    # Create PDF document
    doc = SimpleDocTemplate(pdf_file, pagesize=letter)
    elements = []

    # Add title
    styles = getSampleStyleSheet()
    elements.append(Paragraph("JSON Data Report", styles['Title']))
    elements.append(Paragraph("\n", styles['Normal']))

    # Create table data
    table_data = [["Key", "Value"]]
    for key, value in data.items():
        table_data.append([str(key), str(value)])

    # Create table
    table = Table(table_data, colWidths=[200, 300])
    table.setStyle(TableStyle([
        ('BACKGROUND', (0, 0), (-1, 0), colors.grey),
        ('TEXTCOLOR', (0, 0), (-1, 0), colors.whitesmoke),
        ('ALIGN', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 'CENTER'),
        ('FONTNAME', (0, 0), (-1, 0), 'Helvetica-Bold'),
        ('FONTSIZE', (0, 0), (-1, 0), 14),
        ('BOTTOMPADDING', (0, 0), (-1, 0), 12),
        ('BACKGROUND', (0, 1), (-1, -1), colors.beige),
        ('TEXTCOLOR', (0, 1), (-1, -1), colors.black),
        ('ALIGN', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 'CENTER'),
        ('FONTNAME', (0, 1), (-1, -1), 'Helvetica'),
        ('FONTSIZE', (0, 1), (-1, -1), 12),
        ('TOPPADDING', (0, 1), (-1, -1), 6),
        ('BOTTOMPADDING', (0, 1), (-1, -1), 6),
        ('GRID', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 1, colors.black)
    ]))

    elements.append(table)

    # Build PDF
    doc.build(elements)

if __name__ == "__main__": create_pdf_from_json("input.json", "output.pdf")

patafemma · a year ago

Thanks for the feedback! You're absolutely right: simple cases like rendering lists, tables or key-value pairs are straightforward and can be done with many different tools without much effort. But the devil is in the details.

Where it gets tricky is handling more complex data structures: deeply nested objects and arrays, different date formats, varying element types and adapting the layout based on the structure. SnazzyPDF's layout engine automates those decisions. The configuration options are still limited but that's what I'm focusing on improving next.

patafemma commented on Show HN: SnazzyPDF – Convert Any JSON Data to Beautifully Formatted PDFs snazzypdf.com/... · Posted by u/patafemma

godzillabrennus · a year ago

Neat but as others are saying this is for a technical audience and there is a lot of other options for this.

I could see some devs opting to use an open source software version and electing to host with your cloud hosting when devs do not want to bother keeping it securely hosted.

Small market though. Better to create a bunch of freemium sites to help normies do things with pdfs like convert them to docx or other image types… normies pay a fee to do a bunch of them, a big one, or to unlock a password protected one…

patafemma · a year ago

Thank you for the feedback! I agree, the niche seems pretty small. But I think there are not so many other options for this use case. At least I feel that creating a template and fitting your data into it is a different use case than throwing an arbitrary JSON against an API and getting a PDF document out straight away.

Open sourcing the project is not something that I have decided against. Maybe it could drive more adoption. I've found Chrome to be the best tool for PDF creation in this use case, so the API is actually running a pool of Chrome instances that are used for the rendering. This makes self-hosting slightly more complicated.

patafemma commented on Show HN: SnazzyPDF – Convert Any JSON Data to Beautifully Formatted PDFs snazzypdf.com/... · Posted by u/patafemma

RadiozRadioz · a year ago

Looks nice, well done.

Though I worry about the narrowness and "whip-up-ability" for the price and target market. It's a small enough featureset in a domain that skews technical, many would be inclined to template an HTML table to wkhtml2pdf and call it a day. Maybe they'd open source it after. I suppose you're aiming for the people who wouldn't do that, but would still expend the effort of integrating with an external HTTP API (and paying monthly for it)

I know a measure of a project's usefulness is "if a HN commenter says they could make it in a weekend but haven't, you've got something!", so maybe I'm wrong.

P.s. 50 pages / 1Mb per PDF is ludicrously far too small for a business tier.

patafemma · a year ago

Thanks for the feedback! You're right, many technical users could likely roll their own solution, and for one-off projects, that's a valid approach. However, after working on this for a while, I've found that building a more generic and flexible solution is definitely not a simple task. The goal with SnazzyPDF is to hide the more complicated bits like the layout and consistent formatting of deeply nested JSON, without the need for maintenance. It's aimed for the people who value saving time over building from scratch. I know, maybe it's not really for the most hacker-minded.

Regarding the page/file size limits, that's helpful input. I have set the current limits based on my own experience but haven't had much opportunity to validate them yet. I’ll definitely take another look and try to find a good balance.

patafemma commented on Show HN: Konty – A Balsamiq-alternative lo-fi wireframe tool for modern apps konty.app/http://localhos... · Posted by u/niklauslee

patafemma · 2 years ago

Well done! Basic functionality feels pretty smooth and polished. One thing that I found myself very quickly missing: being able to snap shapes to each other or to the grid.

patafemma commented on Sleep on it: How the brain processes many experiences, even when 'offline' news.yale.edu/2024/08/14/... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

dr_dshiv · 2 years ago

Are we unconscious when we sleep or do we merely lose the capacity to remember? How could we tell the difference?

patafemma · 2 years ago

I guess it depends on how you define consciousness. I think by most definitions, we definitely are unconscious when we are asleep.

patafemma commented on Ask HN: Does learning coding at university result in a "programming accent"? · Posted by u/amichail

patafemma · 2 years ago

Really interesting question. I haven't really noticed any difference in programming styles based on education. But in my experience, you can often see by their programming style if a programmer has worked more in larger corporations or in startups.

patafemma commented on Show HN: Shehzadi in Peril – My first ever game shehzadi.vercel.app... · Posted by u/sh4jid

patafemma · 2 years ago

Congratulations on the launch! Please, consider putting up a screenshot at the top of the README. When I see visual products such as games or GUIs showcased in HN, having a good screenshot or two is often the deciding factor in whether I try it or not. And probably I am not the only one. A picture is worth a thousand words.